Oracle Accused of Stock Manipulation

Dec 22, 1997

After recently posting disappointing quarterly results, Oracle (Redwood Shores, CA) now faces a securities lawsuit, filed on behalf of investors by the Silicon Valley law firm led by William Lerach. The suit alleges that the company's CEO, CFO and COO and other representatives artificially inflated the company's stock between the period of April 29 and December 9. The suit contends that five "insiders" sold off more than 800,000 split-adjusted shares before recent earnings were released, netting more than $28 million in proceeds. Lerach has been behind at least 56 class-action suits against Silicon Valley's most prominent publicly-traded high-tech firms, including Adobe (San Jose) and FileNet Costa Mesa, CA) earlier this year.